On April 4-7 the MTHS robotics team, 1778 or Chill Out, was on the winning team for the robotics Pacific Northwest Regional Championship in Portland. As well as winning, Chill Out also earned a Blue Banner Award after a 12 year losing streak and secured a place in the robotics world championship in Houston on April 18-21.
In these competitions the goal was to successfully pick up as many foam cubes as possible and place them on the designated spot on a scale in the specified amount of time. The teams competed in groups of three with a total of three robots on the field against another team of three. These teams were chosen at random for the qualification rounds, but the top eight teams selected their teammates in the quarter finals, semi finals and finals matches. Chill Out made it through the competition using their robot, named Chilled Butter, with a double reverse four bar lift design.
On the first day of competitions Chill Out was ready to battle it out after winning the three competitions of the day and preparing for the next day’s ventures.
The second day came with some complications after losing four matches and winning three, causing Chill Out’s rank to drop significantly. The rough performance was due to an obstacle with allied robots where both teams had technical difficulties and weren’t able to participate in the match, leaving Chill Out in a three versus one scenario which they eventually lost.
The third day came with surprise after the first place team, Soda Bots, chose Chill Out as their second alliance after they chose another high ranking team, Mean Machine.
After making their way through the quarter finals and the semi finals, Chill Out advanced to the finals matches. After winning the first match 387-328, Chill Out came to the second match in the finals which had some complications, as their allied team, Mean Machine, was unable to play due to a broken chain, which left the match as a two versus three match, resulting in a loss for Chill Out. This setback was not the end for Chill Out’s success, however, as the team made it to the final match of the day against teams Bear Metal, Error Code Xero and CTEC Rootics.
The next match began with Chill Out assigned to the red team for a match against the blue team. Red team gained an early lead against the blue team, but the match was close until the Chill Out robot cornered two of the blue team’s robots, making the match a temporary two versus one and giving the red team the lead they needed to win the match.
After getting ranked ninth during a district event in Auburn on March 16-18 and getting ranked second in another district event in Auburn on March 29-31, Chill Out was invited to participate in a regional championship where they reached rank 31 with a 13-7 record as well as winning the award of “District Championship Winner,” earning them their title in nationals.
Watch Chill Out work as part of the Alliance 1 red team in the final match of the regional championship:
